God has always existed--He is ETERNAL. He is SPIRIT. He is LOVE. He is LONELY. GOD WANTS SONS AND DAUGHTERS.

Since God is good and God is love, He naturally wants His sons and daughters to be good and love also.

Goodness, righteousness, virtue, character, and love AND INANIMATE things cannot be created as a rock, or water, or a star, etc. By the very nature of goodness, virtue, etc., it requires TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE to develop (or create, if you will) these things. And so God CREATES all that is needed to develop these virtuous traits of character and love.

Since any and every virtue that you can think of is the result of overcoming some for of evil, EVIL, therefore, becomes a very important ingredient in the development of virtue, character and love.

As God does not DIRECTLY try anyone, He had to create adversaries to do this "dirty work." And so, God created His OWN ADVERSARY, Satan, the devil. There are lesser adversaries in the form of demons.

Goes gives man the illusion of having "free" will, which exalts his pride and vanity and causes him to think he can operate independently from God. This then brings about SIN. SIN is so bad that it needs to be atoned for. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be this Atonement.

Only a few are presently called to understand ANY OF THESE THINGS. The rest of humanity will be called at the great white throne judging.

There was NO evil present with God before Satan, for God UNDERSTANDS all of the ramifications of good and evil. When all enemies and powers are brought under Christ's subjection, then evil, sin, and even death itself will be abolished.

Sin and evil are absolutely necessary in the development of human character, virtue, and love.